How Do You Determine the Value of Beanie Babies?

Determine your Beanie Baby's value based on rarity, condition, generation and other factors. Finding out what your Beanie Baby's value is requires some legwork. As of 2015, few Beanies are worth a substantial amount of money.

Check your Beanies for first generation hang tags, which come in the form of one flat piece of cardboard rather than the later generation hang tags that fold in half and open like a book. Crease, wrinkles and tears on the hang tag decrease value, while pristine tags increase value. In 2014, a Peking the Panda Beanie Baby with a pristine first generation hang tag sold for $795.

Also check for first generation tush tags, which are always dated either 1993 or 1995. Beanies with tush tags that say "Handmade in Korea" are generally rarer and worth more than Beanies that were made in China. Tush tags that have four lines are valued more highly than tags with five lines of text.

Finally, Beanies that are authenticated are valued higher than Beanies that are not. For a fee, a third-party Beanie Baby expert can authenticate your toy, providing documentation on its value and rarity. This is particularly useful when selling or protecting the value of a toy that is valued very highly. For instance, in 2014, an authenticated #1 Bear Beanie Baby sold for $1,500.